Catching up on the couch

[photopress:img_home_top_ep5.jpg,thumb,pp_image]Just back from vacation and all I can say is I hope you’ve been as faithful to AMC’s “Mad Men” as I instructed.

No other series delivers such an astute rendering of the 1960s, sketching the plight of middle-class suburban women pre-liberation, the changing notions of manhood as the Kennedy era dawned, even nailing the food and fashion sense of the times. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is perfection as the slick advertising executive with secrets.

Set the DVR for Thursdays at 8 p.m. on AMC, (repeats Sundays at 10).

In a summer ruled by original cable efforts, from Glenn Close in “Damages” on FX to David Duchovny in “Californication” on Showtime, the pitch-perfect “Mad Men” on AMC (of all places!) is a standout.

The funny thing is, HBO had considered Mad Men for the time slot formerly held by The Sopranos (the show’s executive producer had worked on The Sopranos), but HBO turned it down.

jsjavier

The funny thing is, HBO had considered Mad Men for the time slot formerly held by The Sopranos (the show’s executive producer had worked on The Sopranos), but HBO turned it down.

chipper

Wow, HBO turned down Madmen for, let’s see … John From Cincinatti? (zzzz, cancelled)… Flight of the Conchrods? (zzzz, should be cancelled soon) … The only buzz HBO is stimulating right now is the buzz about “what the heck happened to HBO?” … yeah, as for my subscription to HBO, “Cancelled” … after 12 years.

chipper

Wow, HBO turned down Madmen for, let’s see … John From Cincinatti? (zzzz, cancelled)… Flight of the Conchrods? (zzzz, should be cancelled soon) … The only buzz HBO is stimulating right now is the buzz about “what the heck happened to HBO?” … yeah, as for my subscription to HBO, “Cancelled” … after 12 years.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.